Even More From This Past Weekend's Various Motorcycle Road Races

With Pirelli standard DIABLO™ Superbike SC0 tires Melandri and Sykes win one race each, with the Englishman also breaking the track record in Superpole

In Race 1 the Noale-based manufacturer riders took advantage of an error made by the Akashi standard bearer at the corkscrew; in Race 2 a crash by Melandri served up Sykes' eighth win of the season

Laguna Seca (California, USA), 14 July 2014 – The weekend which has just come to an end at the Laguna Seca circuit was a long and exciting one which had the riders from the eni FIM World Superbike Championship taking to the track at this spectacular Californian circuit.

Pirelli demonstrated the significant progress that they have taken in development of the new DIABLO™ Superbike tires for the 2014 season: with a new qualifier tire Tom Sykes set the new track record and on purely standard compound tires Aprilia and Kawasaki took one win each.

In Superpole on Saturday, an impressive Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) managed to take full advantage of his bike's setup and the new supersoft qualifying tires in the DIABLO™ Superbike range, setting a new track record in the Superbike category at 1’21.811, improving the time Sylvain Guintoli had made last year by an incredible 9 tenths of a second. It is also interesting to note how, thanks to the new tires made by Pirelli for Superpole, 4 riders (Sykes, Guintoli, Davies and Giugliano) were able to lap below last year's Superpole times.

In Race 1, Marco Melandri (Aprilia Racing Team), who started from the fifth spot on the second row of the grid, and his team mate Sylvain Guintoli, second on the grid, managed to overtake Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) in the first lap at the “Corkscrew” and set a fast pace straight away, thanks in part to the performance provided by their standard Pirelli DIABLO™ Superbike SC0 soft blend rear tires. As the laps went by the standard bearers from the Noale-based manufacturer increased their advantage over the Akashi-based manufacturer's English rider, but it was Marco Melandri who set the race pace, increasing the gap in front of his team mate lap after lap as well. The Italian rode under the chequered flag with an advantage of almost a second over the Frenchman while Tom Sykes took the third step of the podium at a gap of 6.6 seconds behind Melandri. If there were still any doubts as to the superiority of the three riders, they were dispelled by the 13.5 second gap that was created between the race winner and fourth place finisher Davide Giugliano (Ducati Superbike Team).

In Race 2 Championship leader Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) was on a flawless ride. Starting in pole position he held onto the lead from the time the lights went out until the ninth lap when a crash by Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) brought the red flags out. At the restart there were 7 laps to race. Marco Melandri (Aprilia Racing Team) got out of the gates immediately, overtaking the English Kawasaki rider, but in the first lap a second accident, this time involving Sylvain Barrier (BMW Motorrad Italia Superbike Team) without serious consequences fortunately, red flagged the race once again. The 7 lap dash had to be started over again. Marco Melandri burst off the line again ahead of Tom Sykes, moving into the lead but in the second lap he took a slide and was forced to withdraw, as was Davide Giugliano who crashed a little later. At this point Tom Sykes had a clear path toward his eighth win of the season while Sylvain Guintoli, second across the line, took home some important points. Third under the chequered flag was Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike Team).

Comment from Giorgio Barbier, Pirelli Moto Racing Director:

“We drew quite a bit of satisfaction from Laguna Seca once again this year. Already on Friday from the first qualifying sessions almost all the riders were lapping a full second faster than last year. What's more, they were using SC1 and not SC0 tires. Then, as the track cleaned up and the temperatures went up a few days during the day, times got even better through Saturday when Tom Sykes astonished everyone by improving on the track record Guintoli had set last year by almost a second. Even in the races, with purely standard soft rear tires which are available to anyone on the market, the race pace was extremely high, so there is no doubt that we can consider ourselves satisfied with the performance our standard tires demonstrated, both in terms of grip and duration. Today the Aprilia riders did a great job, showing that they have a competitive bike and all the right stuff to battle with Sykes and Baz's Kawasakis all the way to the end of the championship. There are still four rounds to go and anything can happen. We are confident that this year, like every year, the Championship will be decided only in the final races.”

The Pirelli solutions chosen by the riders:

For the front the solution used by most riders was the SC1 S1699 development, selected in both races by 4/5 of the riders on the grid. This is the tire that was first brought to Aragón and met with success and it was also the most popular solution at Assen, Imola, Donington, Misano and Portimão.

On the rear the Superbike riders almost unanimously opted for the soft standard solution, the SC0, whereas most of the EVO class riders preferred the soft solution reserved for them, the R1368, already seen in action at Imola and Misano.

Pirelli Best Lap Awards:

The “Pirelli Best Lap Awards” are awarded by Pirelli to the riders who set the fastest race lap in Superbike and Supersport. This prestigious recognition is presented by a Pirelli representative during the Paddock Show in a press conference which follows the podium at the end of the races, for a total of three awards each weekend.

The Superbike and Supersport riders who have earned the most “Pirelli Best Lap Award” titles at the end of the season will be elected “Best Lap Winner: fastest rider of the year” and awarded during the end of year ceremony. At the moment Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) leads the Superbike standings with 4 Best Lap Awards.

These are the riders who won the Pirelli Best Lap Awards at Laguna Seca:

MONTEREY, CA – Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing celebrated a podium finish on the world stage on Sunday as round four of the AMA Pro Superbike Championships shared the paddock with the World Superbike series at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, CA. Yoshimura Suzuki’s Roger Hayden raced his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 to a hard-fought third place, while teammate Martin Cardenas followed him home in fourth. Rounding out the Yoshimura Suzuki squad, Chris Clark carded a solid ninth-place result.

Because of the visiting World Superbike series, the AMA Pro Superbike schedule included only one race, as opposed to the usual two. So Yoshimura Suzuki’s Hayden made the most of his track time. Hayden started the race from the second row of the gird and was vying for a podium spot right off the line. He went on to overtake teammate Cardenas in third and the two battled mightily, with Hayden eventually pulling away and maintaining the podium spot.

“My start was pretty good,” Hayden said. “Then I got around Martin and put my head down and started clicking off some really good laps. I’m really happy with the podium and how my race went. My speed was good, even though we struggled at the beginning of the weekend. Now we have some momentum going to Mid-Ohio, so I have to thank the Yoshimura Suzuki crew, they dug deep this weekend and got my bike working well.”

Meanwhile, Yoshimura Suzuki’s Cardenas got a great start on his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 and slotted into third on the first lap. Over the course of the race, however, he had some issues and was unable to maintain his pace and wound up finishing fourth.

“We did have a little bit of a problem after a while,” Cardenas said. “And I was losing a bit of time on every lap. Even so, I tried to do the best I could, but the other guys were just a little faster than I was and I ended up fourth. Now we’ll go to Mid-Ohio, where I have had some good results, and see if we can step it up a bit.”

Meanwhile, Yoshimura Suzuki’s Clark got off to a top-10 start and then overtook ninth position before the race’s halfway mark. From there, he made strides to catch up to eighth and also fend off attackers coming from behind. In the end, Clark held on to finish ninth.

“Honestly, we struggled a bit all weekend,” Clark said. “I just didn’t quite have it today but I just tried to put in a solid race and maximize what we did have. Now I’m looking forward to moving on to Mid-Ohio and going forward with our overall strategy, which should suit Mid-Ohio well. I’m looking forward to starting fresh and showing up optimistic next weekend, and hopefully getting a better result.”

Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing’s next event is the fifth round of the 2014 AMA Pro Superbike Championships during the weekend of July 19 - 20, at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, OH.

2014 Laguna Seca Superbike Results:

1. Josh Hayes

2. Cameron Beaubier

3. Roger Hayden

4. Martin Cardenas

5. Chris Fillmore

6. David Anthony

7. Cory West

8. Bernat Martinez

9. Chris Clark

10. Sebastiao Ferreira

2014 Superbike Standings:

1. Josh Hayes – 175

2. Cameron Beaubier – 135

3. Roger Hayden – 134

4. David Anthony – 131

5. Chris Clark – 117

6. Martin Cardenas – 108

7. Chris Fillmore – 85

8. Cory West – 79

9. Bernat Martinez – 61

10. Trent Gibson – 55

About Yoshimura R&D of America: Yoshimura is “The Leader in Performance” and has been for more than 55 years. With unmatched skills, knowledge, and passion for racing, Yoshimura is on the forefront of the aftermarket exhaust industry. Yoshimura pipes are race bred and feature the same legendary performance, fit and quality that has been their trademark for more than five decades. To learn more about Yoshimura and view their wide variety of performance products, visit www.yoshimura-rd.com.